Ultima Thule.

The Clearwater delivered again as the undiscovered capital of late season snow. Drifts block the road at just 6400 feet and I saw up to 7 feet at 8000 feet. Like everywhere around here, last year the snow was deeper here and Tom Beal Park Road was blocked much lower in mid-June, but everything has been flushed out earlier this spring.

Well, the Clearwaters aren’t completely undiscovered. I was huffing up the road early on Saturday when I heard machines approaching – it turned out to be two guys with skis strapped to their ATVs. The lead guy sort of apologized for the noise and stink. I went back on Sunday and from the ruts in the snow it looked like they had an awful time trying to get out.

Were those 28 turns in upper Colt Killed Cirque the season’s last? Probably. It’s tempting to go on, and follow the snow northwards and uphill, but at some point that sort of skiing goes from fulfilling a goal to a search for a distant place which, as the Greeks said, is “beyond the borders of the known world”.

Days on skis 2012-2013: 83.

Rocks thrown into the Clark Fork after skiing: too many to count.